Nice review—David Swensen-when alive and running Yale’s endowment—Klarman and even Buffett in their books, all describe much of their success in investing as coming from special opportunities—supporting takeovers and mergers, venture capital startups and financing bailouts. These deals all take a lot of capital and a huge investment in screening. Swensen and Buffett more or less said common investors don’t have access to these favorable deals and recommended low cost diversified investing for most investors. We still have the advantage of patience that most of the venture capital investors with their 4-5 year time-lines lack.
TIAA is facing a class action suit for rigging their retirement calculator to always recommend their annuities and real estate mutual fund (“Ka-Ching”). There are situations where single annuities don’t make sense, eg if your IRA equivalent is fairly large and diversified with bonds, SS and money market funds available for short-term income needs.
I always wanted to visit Molokai and would enjoy some travel suggestions, eg where are good snorkeling spots? Sticking to HD’s mission— did the off the map location keep the total travel budget low—eg did the small planes and limited vacation rentals result in low prices that compensate for the high grocery costs? I would imagine it could be like St Johns, VI with a high cost for restaurants and fancy rentals but a lot of inexpensive camping and outdoor activities available?
I used to be DIY and had no problems with Vanguard or with Merrill Lynch phone and on-line support. Things got more complicated with SEPs, 503b, transferred IRAs, Merrill brokerage, donor advisory fund, etc. Phone support for both dwindled and became more difficult to access. Three years ago I began using the Vanguard private consulting service and I highly recommend their services. The 0.3% fee is a good value for me and my wife—they help with education and retirement planning and implement investments. They also eliminate service problems and are available to do things like help adjust investment thresholds when dividends trickle in and move money from a money market savings fund to checking and investments. There is a bit of a firewall between the consulting service and setting up their donor advised fund—not sure if that is a regulatory barrier? My spouse hates finances and they could also handle financial affairs if I were to die before her.
i have seen a lot of strife and estrangements based on widowhood and unusual estate divisions in in-law and friend families: one father with cancer thought it was best to help out the second younger generation and divided up his estate among his grandchildren—this left an unmarried daughter who had no children furious and estranged; I have seen a stepmother take a family farm away from the adult children operating the farm with their estrangement; I saw a widowed father remarry and have him and his wife be rejected by the adult children even though she only had a living will which passed their house eventually to the children and his investments went to the children—they just couldn’t cope with the loss of their mother.
My Vanguard advisor is great and has a 0.3% fee. My previous Wells Fargo wealth advisor charged 1% and offered some high fee products and gave me a portfolio that earned 2% less than my Vanguard portfolio. Firing him and moving over to Vanguard has given me large returns with low fees.
https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/corporatesite/us/en/corp/vemo/vemo-return-forecasts.html vanguard’s economic projection may be helpful—they show the importance of standard bond/equity and domestic/international diversification.
Stocks in permian basin shell oil company leases that were “safely” hedged—until they plummeted into bankruptcy. One CEO drove into a freeway overpass as a method of suicide—I just learned an investment lesson.
The AI summary on the advantages of the TIAA Traditional Annuity seems fair. I also ran Gemini AI on the disadvantages of the Traditional Annuity and these mostly applied to high income savers: 1) it can be viewed as a bond substitute, but there is an opportunity cost of potentially missing out on equity growth and keeping up with inflation; 2) distributions are common income, with high taxes for those in high tax brackets compared to capital gains; 3) heirs lose out. The HD comments suggest people sleep better with the annuity boost to stable monthly SS and pension payments. My mother has a traditional annuity that helps control her shopping budget!
Comments
Here’s a take on the dividend irrelevance theory: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/dividend-irrelevancy-theory/
Post: Dividends Part II – At least
Link to comment from August 25, 2025
Nice review—David Swensen-when alive and running Yale’s endowment—Klarman and even Buffett in their books, all describe much of their success in investing as coming from special opportunities—supporting takeovers and mergers, venture capital startups and financing bailouts. These deals all take a lot of capital and a huge investment in screening. Swensen and Buffett more or less said common investors don’t have access to these favorable deals and recommended low cost diversified investing for most investors. We still have the advantage of patience that most of the venture capital investors with their 4-5 year time-lines lack.
Post: How to Beat the Market
Link to comment from August 23, 2025
TIAA is facing a class action suit for rigging their retirement calculator to always recommend their annuities and real estate mutual fund (“Ka-Ching”). There are situations where single annuities don’t make sense, eg if your IRA equivalent is fairly large and diversified with bonds, SS and money market funds available for short-term income needs.
Post: Outliving Your Money? Let’s Do the Math on Annuities
Link to comment from August 14, 2025
I always wanted to visit Molokai and would enjoy some travel suggestions, eg where are good snorkeling spots? Sticking to HD’s mission— did the off the map location keep the total travel budget low—eg did the small planes and limited vacation rentals result in low prices that compensate for the high grocery costs? I would imagine it could be like St Johns, VI with a high cost for restaurants and fancy rentals but a lot of inexpensive camping and outdoor activities available?
Post: Reacting to the Tariffs
Link to comment from August 8, 2025
I used to be DIY and had no problems with Vanguard or with Merrill Lynch phone and on-line support. Things got more complicated with SEPs, 503b, transferred IRAs, Merrill brokerage, donor advisory fund, etc. Phone support for both dwindled and became more difficult to access. Three years ago I began using the Vanguard private consulting service and I highly recommend their services. The 0.3% fee is a good value for me and my wife—they help with education and retirement planning and implement investments. They also eliminate service problems and are available to do things like help adjust investment thresholds when dividends trickle in and move money from a money market savings fund to checking and investments. There is a bit of a firewall between the consulting service and setting up their donor advised fund—not sure if that is a regulatory barrier? My spouse hates finances and they could also handle financial affairs if I were to die before her.
Post: Vanguard Complaints?
Link to comment from July 18, 2025
i have seen a lot of strife and estrangements based on widowhood and unusual estate divisions in in-law and friend families: one father with cancer thought it was best to help out the second younger generation and divided up his estate among his grandchildren—this left an unmarried daughter who had no children furious and estranged; I have seen a stepmother take a family farm away from the adult children operating the farm with their estrangement; I saw a widowed father remarry and have him and his wife be rejected by the adult children even though she only had a living will which passed their house eventually to the children and his investments went to the children—they just couldn’t cope with the loss of their mother.
Post: Estrangement & Estates
Link to comment from July 12, 2025
My Vanguard advisor is great and has a 0.3% fee. My previous Wells Fargo wealth advisor charged 1% and offered some high fee products and gave me a portfolio that earned 2% less than my Vanguard portfolio. Firing him and moving over to Vanguard has given me large returns with low fees.
Post: The High Cost of Financial Advice: A Tale of Two Portfolios
Link to comment from July 9, 2025
https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/corporatesite/us/en/corp/vemo/vemo-return-forecasts.html vanguard’s economic projection may be helpful—they show the importance of standard bond/equity and domestic/international diversification.
Post: Is now the time to go long in bonds?
Link to comment from July 4, 2025
Stocks in permian basin shell oil company leases that were “safely” hedged—until they plummeted into bankruptcy. One CEO drove into a freeway overpass as a method of suicide—I just learned an investment lesson.
Post: Stepping In It
Link to comment from May 26, 2025
The AI summary on the advantages of the TIAA Traditional Annuity seems fair. I also ran Gemini AI on the disadvantages of the Traditional Annuity and these mostly applied to high income savers: 1) it can be viewed as a bond substitute, but there is an opportunity cost of potentially missing out on equity growth and keeping up with inflation; 2) distributions are common income, with high taxes for those in high tax brackets compared to capital gains; 3) heirs lose out. The HD comments suggest people sleep better with the annuity boost to stable monthly SS and pension payments. My mother has a traditional annuity that helps control her shopping budget!
Post: RDQ Sorry folks, I still see annuities, including deferred annuities, as a viable option for creating steady retirement income.
Link to comment from May 12, 2025